Industrial Design
Drawing on its contribution to responsible, human-centered design, Industrial Design (or ID) teaches you to use critical thinking and the design process to enhance companies, communities and citizens. Expert faculty guide you in researching user experiences to create well-conceived and executed objects, products and systems that make everyday tasks easier.
Degree programs
Through an emphasis on informed research and hands-on making, the Industrial Design BFA program puts you in position to design effective solutions for a wide range of problems.
Approaching industrial design as a vehicle for addressing social, cultural, environmental and other issues, the MID program teaches the skills and advanced understanding you need to practice design for the greater good.
In the studio
In responding to assigned projects, ID majors work with a wide range of materials in the process of designing objects, products, systems and experiences. In ID you develop ideas through sketching and drawing before moving on to models and working prototypes.
Student work
Alumni
ID alumni go on to make a real difference through design, offering innovative solutions to many problems. They start their own businesses, join cutting-edge studios and work for organizations and corporations, creating medical devices, household products, alternative transportation vehicles, nanotech devices, new materials and much more…
“More than a billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water,” says Grewall, who worked with several Brown students to launch a nonprofit effort known as WaterWalla. Their mission? To bring clean water to India's slums. Grewall relocated to India right after graduation to head WaterWalla's Mumbai office and is now making great headway in tackling this chronic public-health issue.
Featured stories
This spring, students in the Industrial Design course Humanitarian Innovation Design worked with partners in Greece and Uganda.
Students spent three weeks learning from local experts and engaging in lab experiments before presenting final concepts.
Four recent RISD graduates are included in the latest Forbes 30 Under 30 compilation.